


In Fields of Wild Juniberries

by LuckyLucy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blackmail, Enemies to Friends, Galran Soldier Keith (Voltron), Galran Soldier Shiro (Voltron), Human Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Kidnapping, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Prince Lance - Freeform, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), Unplanned Romance Plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2019-09-26 08:19:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17138267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuckyLucy/pseuds/LuckyLucy
Summary: Inspired by: http://calamarisunshine.tumblr.com/post/160110098782/lances-guard-aka-keith-doesnt-talk-to-him-forRecently there have been many rumours of the Galra Empire betraying Altea. To resolve the tension between the Glarans and Alteans, Lord Zarkon decided to send over two of his best guards for the two royal children of Altea named prince Lance and princess Allura.However, even though it’s true that the soldiers are both the best warriors that Galra could ever have, their mission isn’t to uphold peace.





	1. I'm a Single Father

“Hey Axor.

 

…

 

“Hey Axor.”

 

…

 

“Hey Axor!”

 

“What?”

 

“Wanna play ‘Eye Spy’?”

 

“No, for the last time… I do not want to play ‘Eye Spy’! How the _quiznak_ are we even supposed to play ‘Eye Spy’? We are in quiznaking space!” The husky voice retort echoed through the vast void of space, the only objects that were there were the four small Altean spaceships traversing through the cold void of space.

 

“Come on Axor, don’t be like that… You know Aman is just playing.” A female voice replied through the intercom.

 

“Yeah, he could play all he wants but some people want some peace and quiet for once.” A grumbled voice could be heard throughout the pilots’ intercoms, making a very different and deep voice chuckle.

 

“Maybe ‘Eye Spy’ isn’t your cup of glob, but how about ‘Truth or Dare’?” Aman chirper voice came in, making Axor groan in response.

 

“Sounds fun, how do you play?” The feminine voice came in again, obviously just humoring Aman for the fun of it.

 

“Come _on_! Not you too, Vox!” Axor whined, wondering if he should just mute the intercom to stop from hearing all the endless blabbering.

 

“What’s with you and fun, Axor? Did it kill your family or something? I mean even Jor wants to play!”

 

…

 

“Hm.” The pilot grunted in acknowledgement.

 

“ _See_. So, it’s a game I created myself. Basically, a person asks you whether you want to tell the truth or do a dare. If you pick ‘truth’ you _have_ to tell the truth to the question the person asks. If you pick ‘dare’ then you have to do something the person tells you to do.” Aman explained.

 

“What happens if I don’t tell the truth?” Axor asked, resting his cheek on his palm.

 

“… _Well_ , I didn’t get that far. But, let’s just assume that you tell the truth.” Aman said, which made Axor roll his eyes.

 

“Okay, I’ll start…. Um… Axor, truth or dare?” Aman asked.

 

“Truth.”

 

“Come on, don’t be such a space caterpillar.” Vox’s voice teased.

 

“Okay, fine. Dare.” Axor complied.

 

“I dare you… To umm….”

 

“There’s a planet.” The chocolaty voice of Jor came into the intercom interrupting Aman’s game.

 

“King Alfor ordered that we shouldn’t land on any planets. It’s just a scouting mission after all.” Vox advised.

 

“Yeah, but where’s the fun in that. Okay, Axor… I dare you to… land on that planet.” Many interjections from Axor erupted from the intercom.

 

“No way! Absolutely not.” Axor argued.

 

“Well, I guess he was wrong about you Axor.” Vox teased.

 

“What?” Axor asked in confusion.

 

“At the station, King Alfor came to me and would say that you’re the bravest warrior by far. He kept saying how he was glad to have a warrior like you, but I guess he was wrong.”

 

“Oh yeah, I remember that! I remember one time; he waited for you to arrive from that peacemaking mission to ask you for advice. Coran was so mad; he wouldn’t even talk to Alfor for six whole quintants. Don’t you remember?” Aman recounted, directing the question to Jor who then grunted in response as he was incredibly focused at flying his space cruiser. Wouldn’t want another incident...

 

“Fine! I’ll do it.” Axor finally complied turning his ship towards the blue planet. His compliance made Aman give a cheer of excitement, which in return made Axor sigh heavily.

 

As Axor lessen the distance between him and the planet, he notices that the planet had specks of green on it. Axor braces for impact for entering the atmosphere, looking back at the three space cruisers he begins thinking about different ways he could get revenge on Aman. Maybe cutting his ears off would be sufficient, or sewing his mouth shut so Axor could finally get some peace and quiet.

 

His thoughts were cut short, as there was suddenly a loud beeping noise coming from the thermometer; he swore under his breath, as the outer temperature of the ship quickly increased. The pilot reached out for a pulley, allowing air to pump through the ship, and decreasing the speed of the ship’s impact.

 

Axor quickly starts pulling at levers and pulleys to decrease the impact of the landing. A voice then began to echo throughout the Altean spacecraft, counting down from five.

 

Five.

 

The ship began heating up, Aman started biting his nails anxiously as he watched the craft fall towards the planet below.

 

Four.

 

Red hazard lights were flashing quickly throughout Axor’s ship.

 

Three.

 

The distance of the planet was rapidly decreasing.

 

Two.

 

The ship was speedily increasing momentum, Jor’s eyes widen as he lost sight of the white cruiser.  

 

One.

 

Vox couldn’t look, closing her eyes, and shielding her face from seeing the descending ship.

 

Then suddenly there was a loud:

 

_Splash!_

Axor looked around in sudden confusion and only seeing foliage around him, it wasn’t as much as Olkarian, but it was still an impressive feat. The pilot saw huge trees with giant leaves; they were probably bigger than his body. There were little animals and insects scurrying away from the alien object, really reminding Axor of the forests of Olkarian. Axor peeled his eyes away from the foreign environment to the scanner on the spacecraft’s dashboard; the air in the environment was reported to be completely breathable.

 

He opened up the hatch that protected his body from the strange outside territory, and placed his boots into the flowing water. The depth of the water was very shallow, but there was still a strong current pulling small sticks and leaves into its grasp when they were drawn in.

 

Axor looked around the area, not really bothering to leave the shallow river that he had landed in. All that surrounded him was bushes and huge trees that looked like they scraped the sky. Looking pass the trees he could only see the bright beam of a single sun in the sky shining down upon him, which increased his temperature tremendously.

 

“I’ve landed.” Axor reported through the intercom in his suit. In response, he heard a collective amount of sighs from the opposite end, making Axor chuckle to himself.

 

“I’m going to look around.” Axor told them, as he took one step however he was interrupted by Aman’s voice through the speaker.

 

“Wait, I don’t think it’s safe. I think you should come back.” How ironic that the easy-going, fun loving pilot would say that.

 

“But where’s the fun in that?” Axor responded to his worried friend, his crewmembers could almost see the smirk the Altean pilot was giving them. The grey-haired Altean continued to trek forward, out of the creak, beginning to slice through bushes and branches with his dagger.

 

A few minutes later, Axor was able to break through to a clearing of some sort. He stood in a field of long grass and open fields, as he continued to walk he occasionally heard hissing causing the soldier’s guard to rise up. It wasn’t long ‘till he broke into a dirt trail, which made him think he ought to stop here or he would be risking the chance of being spotted by the locals.

 

Axor began to turn around, but stopped when he heard a cry that sounded like the cry of an Altean. The soldier began looking around for the source of the noise, hoping that no one will see him in the process. There shouldn’t be any Alteans around this planet; he and his crew only recently discovered it, so it doesn’t explain what the quiznak was the source of that noise? The sound continued to get louder and louder as Axor grew closer to the origin of it.

 

The Altean grabbed the tall grass to move it aside to reveal the thing that was making all that noise. Would it be a creature of some kind? Would it be dangerous? Was it small? Huge? As Axor crept closer to the object, he pulled back the grass to reveal…

 

A baby?

 

It wasn’t any baby that Axor had ever seen in his life, not that he would’ve seen many babies in his life. He was after all still a single man looking for his soul mate, his love of his life, his sweetheart, his one and only, his… Well, it doesn’t really matter right now; the real problem wasn’t his love life, but the origins of this alien baby.

 

Axor hesitantly lift up the newborn, looking at its face as it looked up at his in confusion. The baby didn’t have any Altean marks or any sign of the origin of its birth. The baby reached out to grab the soldier’s ears, making Axor edge backwards; he noticed that the child didn’t have the ears of an Altean, as it was smooth and soft at the top. Axor watched as the baby proceeded to grab it’s own ears to compare between the grown Altean and it’s.

 

The Altean began to look around to see if there were any houses around, or shelter for this abandoned child, but there was nothing from miles away. There were only many more fields of grass and bushes scattered around the vicinity. Axor looked back at the young infant’s big blue ocean eyes, which were staring back at him. They were filled with potential for something great, filled with curiosity and caring. Axor looked at the baby, and thought about what he should do, when suddenly he got a terrible idea in his mind. It was like the baby could read his mind, because then it started laughing at him.

 

“So, did you find anything?” Aman’s voice came through suddenly, startling him and moving the baby’s attention to the intercom on Axor’s suit. The smile on the baby grew tenfold, deciding Axor’s decision for him.

 

Quiznak.

 

“Yeah, I did.” Axor sighed in discontent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, thank you for reading the first chapter of "In Fields of Wild Juniberries".
> 
> Just in case the tags "Unplanned Romance Plot" and the "Keith/Lance (Voltron)??" was confusing to you, I want to explain that I haven't planned for this story to be a Lance/Keith fanfiction.
> 
> This doesn't mean that there won't be Klance, but there is a chance of there being none if I don't believe that the romance plot is necessary.
> 
> This is only because I don't want to rush a Klance plot if it wasn't planned in the first place.
> 
> Thanks for your understanding!


	2. What's in a name?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Axor bonds with royalty.

“I can’t believe you’re going to keep a child!” Vox exclaimed, chuckling a bit to herself, as they exited the spacecraft. The crew had just landed back down to Altea. As she exited the ship, her long shining blonde hair flew behind her; it was like a river made out of gold.

 

Axor was carrying the baby in his hands nervously, looking down at the steps to make sure he didn’t trip.

 

“Yeah, I didn’t know you were a baby kind of guy.” Aman interjected, placing his hands behind his head and stretching. Aman ruffled his bright ruby red hair then gave his pale face gave a charming grin to Axor, ignoring Axor death stare at Aman in distaste for his comment. However, Axor quickly returned his eyes to the stairs, watching his feet carefully to not lose his footing and drop the baby.

 

“What? It’s true! Even Jor thinks that!” Aman retorted, making Jor hum in acknowledgement. After all, Jor was an experienced father of four kids, so he knew the difficultly of raising a child.

 

“Come on guys, have a little faith in me. How hard can raising one baby be?” Axor smiled at the child; their eyes were closed with a precious little smile on their precious little face. Jor chuckled before walking off to join his family; they were all waiting for him to arrive back before they could start eating dinner. No one even had chance to see his face, as he moved so fast because of the rush he was in to get back to his home. Jor was in such a rush that he didn’t even notice an Altean dressed in royal garbs exiting the elevator, as Jor entered it.

 

“Axor, how lovely to see you alive!” A tall Altean with tanned skin and white hair walked up to Axor from an elevator. The male carried an aura of leadership and kindness when he walked into the room, and his smile was warmer than a sun.

 

“Your majesty.” Axor quickly kneeled on one knee, cradling the infant in his arms who was still fast asleep, as the gentle, soothing rocking of the spacecraft made the child slowly fall in a deep sleep for the rest of the ride back to Altea.

 

“Axor, there’s no need for such formality! We’re friends, are we not?” His majesty widely smiled before grabbing Axor’s arm to raise the soldier up. While watching Axor rise up, the royal caught a glimpse of a small alien child in Axor’s arms. The cheerful royal frowned before quickly placing back a smile on his face.

 

“A baby? Congratulations, Axor! I always knew you and Vox would be a great match!” The man cheered, giving Axor one hard pat on the back, causing Axor to take a step forward in surprise.

 

“No! No way I would ever- She would never- W-we aren’t an item Alfor. ” Axor stuttered flabbergasted, but all Alfor did was smirk before walking away, his navy blue cape falling behind him. Axor quickly jogged up behind the Altean king, trying his best not to wake the child in his arms. However, as Axor decreased the distance between him and Alfor, silence built a wall of tension between them.

 

“So… How are you and the Queen doing?” Axor looked up from the floor to the king, pausing awkwardly.

 

“We haven’t had much luck unfortunately…” Alfor sighed heavily as he and Axor entered the elevator, watching the gates closed and the distance increased from the newly parked spaceships. The Alteans workers below looking tinier every tick, like they were watching them being shrunk by a Yalmor.

 

“Oh, I’m sorry.” The awkward tension grew.

 

“I always wonder what being a father would be like, but now I’m beginning to think that that isn’t my fate.” Alfor began starring holes into the ground of the elevator; the tiny space of the room grew quiet. How long have they’ve been in this damn elevator?

 

It seemed that the tension grew too much however, as the newborn in Alfor’s arm started shaking awake. It’s loud cries shook the elevator, and echoed throughout the space cruiser dock. Many Alteans down below looked up at the elevator in confusion.

 

“They’re very cute. Have you decided on a name, yet?” Alfor spoke like the noise wasn’t even affecting him, smiling at the child with a patient smile. Being a king comes with having patience of a saint it seems.

 

“I don’t even know its gender.” Axor chuckled, placing the newborn over his shoulder and patting them roughly on the back in a sloppy attempt to calm them down.

 

“Here, give them to me for a tick,” Alfor requested opening his arms for the baby. The warrior looked at the king with a hesitant stare, even though he has seen Alfor fallen asleep after reading piles and piles of parenting books, Axor didn’t really trust anyone handling his child. It took a while for Axor to come to the conclusion of handing over the baby, but taking the account that Axor had known Alfor for many deca-phoebs, he trusted Alfor with his life.

 

After handing the baby over to the king, the child looked up at the childless king with wide curious eyes, and suddenly stopped crying. They then began to grab strands of Alfor’s white beard, but the King was still swift even in his older years allowing him to quickly dodge the chubby fingers of the newborn.

 

Alfor lifted the blanket that was wrapped around the baby; it only took a tick, and went as fast as light.

 

Out of nowhere Alfor stated, “It’s a boy.”

 

It seemed that those were the magic words for the doors of the elevator to open. Alfor handed back the child to Axor who stood there baffled, watching as white-haired Altean walked.

 

“Wait, wait, wait. How did you know that?” Axor asked, jogging up to Alfor causing the boy to jump around in the warrior’s arms, giggling in contentment.

 

“He looks like an Altean, I just assumed his biology would be the same too.” Alfor and Axor continued to walk down the large corridor, all the walls were made out of air locked, thick glass; leaving a grand view of rest of the bright pristine white and blue futuristic world of Altea. They continued to walk for a few minutes in silence before, Alfor suddenly stood in front of the pilot.

 

Alfor looked at the ground, almost as he was embarrassed to say something to him.

 

“What is it?” Axor cued, looking at his king fumble with his fingers.

 

“Do you think… Do you think I can name him?” Axor looked at his king with wide eyes, almost as wide as the child’s ones, and then started laughing loudly. Many of the passersby looked at the soldier like he was crazy, laughing in front of their king like that was an impulsive and dishonorable act to many Alteans.

 

“Alfor, you’re the closest one to being my brother! Of course, why would you even think I would say no?” Axor smiled widely, watching Alfor smile back before coming back to Axor’s side to ruffle the soldier’s chestnut brown hair.

 

“Well even if you said no, I would use my king powers over you.” Alfor wiggled his fingers like he was casting his spell. The two Alteans traversed through smaller corridors of palace, before they began to walk down white stairs that led to the courtyard that was filled with wild Juniberries. The middle of the wide courtyard had a fountain that looked like a blue pyramid with white carving on the sides; it was also opened at the top where bright blue clear water was spouting out.

 

“So, what’s name you were thinking of?” Axor stopped just they reached the bottom of stairs. Alfor looked up in thought like he didn’t know he would get this far.

 

“Well… I-I was going to give this name to my child if it was a son, but I don’t believe I’ll ever get the chance… So, I was thinking about Lance, it was means land in Altean. ” Alfor suggested, watching Axor think about it before chuckling softly at the irony.

 

“Ironic, I found him in a field of a strange new land!” Axor confessed, causing Alfor’s eyes to widen at the news.

 

“A new planet! Well, breaking orders I see… As your king, I demand you tell me about it!” Alfor demanded causing Axor to smirk.

 

“I’ll have to tell you later, my king! As I am starving and tired from the long voyage.” Axor bowed, mockingly this time.

 

“I will see to it! Prepare to see the guards at your door if you fail to uphold this.” Alfor bantered back, before grabbing his cape and making an overdramatic wave with his cape, as he began to part ways with the warrior. However, a hand stopped him on his shoulder, making him turn around to see Axor’s serious face look him directly in the eyes.

 

“Do not give hope Alfor, I am sure you will get the child that you wish for.” Alfor smiled sadly at his friend before shrugging off the hand and walking back into the palace, giving Axor the cue to also leave.

 

The new father looked down at the fields of Juniberries, and bent down to pick one up, placing it on top of the ear of his newly adopted son, smiling at the surprise on the infant’s face.

 

“Let’s go home, Lance.” His smile widen as the child began to giggle in glee, their legs kicking up excitedly.    

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to get this chapter out quickly, as even though this chapter is important to set the scene, I want to get into the actual plot. 
> 
> Expect one more chapter of this type of theme before the real action happens. 
> 
> P.S. Thank you for flora_chan, Reuben_Aloway, Niyah606, HappyUranus, and guest for giving kudos/bookmarking! Also, thanks to Schuchi, and ARIAMANAMI for bookmarking!
> 
> P.P.S. I've recently received a comment talking about the origin to Lance's name in German. I originally saw in a baby naming site that Lance meant Land in German, however I was corrected.
> 
> If you would like to find out more about the Germanic and German language, you can look at Jemand's comment. I sure learned something from reading it, and was very interesting! Thank you Jemand! ❤


	3. Happy Birthquintant!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The whole crew decides to come together to spend a very important event. It seems like happiness is in the air, but will it stay that way?

Before Alfor reached the door that separated the freedom of the outdoors from the constricts of the indoors, the king turned around to see his best soldier and friend walk away. Alfor watched as Axor began grinning at the child in his arms as they left the courtyard. The dark-skinned warrior was walking away with a life that Alfor was starting to believe he would never get to experience. The Altean leader melancholically smiled at the newly formed family before entering back into the castle.

 

Two deca-pheobs had pasted, and Axor was completely pasted out, his body laid about on his small, single-sized bed. His snores shook the whole room, and his drool was all over his face and pillow. Suddenly, the door of windowless room began to be slowly opened, before something scurried across the navy carpet floor, and their head peeked over the bedside. The figure clumsily jumped onto the bed and shook the Altean, who was still snoring like he was sawing several thick logs.

  

“Wake up! Wake up! _Wake up_!” The child’s chocolate brown hair shook around in excitement for… something. The older Altean grumbled in response before turning his face towards the stiff pillow.

 

“ _Come on_! Wake up! You didn’t forget what day it is, did you?” The child asked before clashing his face with his guardian’s shoulder and hugging him tightly like a very cute and non-deathly parasite.

 

“It’s the twenty-eighth quintant and the seventh pheob on the cycle.” Axor grumbled, reciting it like he said the date a thousand times. He then turned to face the opposite way of the closest bedside, knocking the toddler off the bed, resulting in a loud:

 

_OOF!_

Sweet silence then filled the room.

 

Axor didn’t think much about the child that he just knocked off, as he smiled before raising the white bed sheets over his head. However, just as Axor was about to fall back into sleep’s grasp, a cry shook the room making Axor’s eyes snap back open.

 

Axor sat up, his eyes were filled with boogers and many dark bags hung underneath them. He turned to where the edge of the bed was and spotted the one-year old; already changed with amazing fashion sense, bawling their eyes out.

 

Oh, quiznak.

 

“What’s wrong, Lance! I’m sorry I knocked off the bed, please stop crying!” Axor quickly hopped out of his military styled bed, cradling his son in his arms. However, even as the adult rocked and rubbed Lance’s back gently, nothing seemed to work.

 

Axor continued to carry Lance towards the kitchen, placing the crying child on a high chair that looked like it was handmade… badly. Just as the guardian was thinking about joining the child in crying, Axor’s attention was caught to the sound of a calendar that fell down, maybe because the only thing holding it up were Space Mice stickers. He walked over to go pick it up, his eyes trailing to what day it was.

 

“Quiznak…” Axor whispered, on the calendar there was a note that was messily written, which read:

 

_“Lance’s Big Awesome Amazing Birthquintant!”_

Axor looked over at the tanned child, who was still crying like it was their birthday, which it was.

 

“Listen bud, I’m _so_ sorry I forgot what today was. I was just really tired from work yesterday and I… B-but don’t worry little guy ‘cause Vox and Jor are coming over today! Yay!” Axor fake-cheered.

 

The boy slowly looked up at his guardian, he looked like he was trying to find any discrepancies in Axor’s eyes, before beginning to wipe the tears from his eyes.

 

“…And uncle Aman?” The toddler eyes seemed to double in size, which would seem impossible as the child’s eyes already seemed gigantic.

 

“And Aman…” The Axor sighed, ruffling the boy’s hair, walking away to prepare the family’s daily food goo. A knock was then heard from the metal door. However, just as Axor was about to reach for it, Lance climbed out of his high chair and scurried towards the door.

 

Axor watched as the boy inserted the code for the alarm, and as the door slid open. Lance’s eyes quickly trailed up to reveal Jor with a straight face on his olive skin, and Aman with a bright huge smile on his rosy face.

 

“Uncle Jor! Uncle Aman!”

 

“Happy Birthquintant, little guy!” Aman bended over to pick up toddler, watching as Lance giggled with glee. Meanwhile, Jor walked over to Axor preparing breakfast.

 

“I’ll take over.” Jor said, his husky voice waking Axor from his half-asleep state.

 

“It’s no problem… I-I’m almost… Finished….” Axor yawned, his eyes getting heavier with every word he tried to mutter.

 

“You should get some rest.” Jor said, before grabbing Axor and tossing him over the Jor’s back. There was a slight struggle from Axor, but quickly surrendered as Jor carried him back to bed.

 

“Uncle Aman? When do you think I’ll get marks like yours?” Lance asked reaching to touch the older man’s marks.

 

“When you’re older, champ! Then, you can finally join the garrison with me and your father!” Aman walked over to the counter to place the bags he was holding; the countertop was like marble, coloured bright pink, blue and purple and moving like a calming wave. Aman gaze shifted when he saw Jor exiting Axor’s room.

 

“I bet you’ll even train with uncle Jor when you’re older! Isn’t that right, Jor?” Aman asked, watching as Jor headed over to look into the cabinets and pressing some buttons to let the warm sunlight flood the room.

 

“Have you seen Vox? She said she would be here…” Jor asked, grabbing boxes and different types of meat from the fridge.

 

“She’s with her girlfriend, remember? It’s their anniversary; I think she’ll be coming soon though.” Aman said.

 

“Do you think _I’ll_ get a girlfriend one day?” Lance looked up, adorably.

 

“Maybe one day! I bet you’ll even be a player like your favourite uncle too!” Aman smirked, making Jor scoff from his place on the stove.

 

“Like uncle Jor?” Lance asked, making Aman choking on air, and Jor give a hardy laugh, but Lance just looked around confused.

 

After a few dobashs, Jor had finished breakfast, and watched as Aman and Lance ate like a bunch of wild animals. Jor’s attention was shifted as he watched a now well-rested Axor walk into the room, ruffling his messy bedhead.

 

“You look better. I told you, you shouldn’t have taken the night _and_ day shift.” Jor sighed, getting up from his place at the table to grab Axor’s plate.

 

“I know… But, the person that was suppose to be there had to be with their family for the holidays.” Axor sat down by the counter, not wanting Lance to hear their conversation.

 

“Yes, but you can’t be taking random shifts anymore. You have a family now, a child to look after.” Jor advised, leaning on the counter while Axor picked at his food, ashamed at his decision of leaving his child alone.

 

A knock was then heard at the door, catching Aman’s attention. He wiped the food from his lips, and walked towards the door. When the door slid open it was the face of Vox, she opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Aman’s attempt to wrap his arms around her.

 

“Stop! You’ll crush the cake!” Vox said, sternly making Aman back away and Lance leap up with joy.

 

“Cake! Cake! Cake!” Lance jumped off of his chair, surrounding Vox’s legs, jumping up and down to take a peek at the cake.

 

“Do you want to cut the cake now?” Vox said her eyes trailed up from Lance to look up at Axor as she spoke.

 

“Yeah sure, me and Lance were just going to go to the market later anyway. He’s going to pick out something very special for him.” Axor smirked at Lance, who automatically knew what Axor meant.

 

“A sword!” Lance jumped and down in excitement.

 

“You sure about that Axor? Remember last time when he got a butter knife?” Vox reminded him, tying her locks into a ponytail; her length seemed to have gotten shorter. She was also dressed really fancy, as if she had just gotten back from a date.

 

“Yeah, but it’ll be fine Vox, and that haircut was long overdue anyway! Besides, I’ll train him!” Aman said, unintentionally placing his hand roughly on the female Altean’s shoulder.

 

“You? I wouldn’t even let you touch a stick.” Vox said, placing the cake on the counter. Everyone’s eyes then stared at the white and blue, vanilla cake; it had a very terrible drawing of Lance in the middle. Everyone looked at Vox with disbelief, and raised eyebrow.

 

“What? I tried my best!” Vox pouted, crossing her arms and looking away.

 

“It’s amazing, auntie Vox!” Lance said, when he was able to reach the top of one of the chairs (with help from Axor), he placed his small hands on the countertop to lean forward. His enthusiasm and awe for the cake made Vox smile.

 

“ _See_ , some people know beauty when they see it.” Vox said, placing a hand on her hip.

 

“Well, I guess your girlfriend must be blind.” Aman muttered, resulting with Vox slapping him over the head.

 

“Why don’t we just cut the cake?” Jor interrupted, lifting the lid off, and placing a projector on top of the cake. Lance watched as turned on, and as the candles automatically began to light themselves. The projector then began to play an Altean folk song, which everyone sang along to.  

 

“Make a wish, Lance!” Axor said, cuing Lance to close his eyes and make a wish. Soon after a few vargas, everyone had decided to head down to the market together, but then slowly left separately as they realized how late it was.

 

Axor swiped the key to open the door, with many bags in his hands as coincidentally; Lance’s birthday was also grocery day.

 

“Enjoyed your birthquintant, son?” Axor looked down at Lance, who was waving a wooden sword around. While coming home, Lance had hit at least seven people after Axor bought it for him.

 

“Yeah!” Lance cheered, his eyes caught back to the bags that were left for him.

 

“Can we open _those_ now, dad?” Axor’s eyes widen at the word ‘dad’, making him stumble forward a bit.

 

“Y-yeah, sure son.” Axor went to grab the bags, but suddenly there was a sound at the door.

 

“Why don’t you take these back to your room, champ?” Axor asked, handing the presents over to Lance. He watched as Lance slowly walked away, struggling to carry the bags. After all, Lance was just two years old now.

 

A knock was then heard again at the door.

 

Axor sighed, “I’m coming!”

 

A few knocks were given in response, just as Axor placed the groceries on the kitchen table.

 

“Wait a dobash!” Axor said before opening the door, expecting some door-to-door salesman.

 

But it wasn’t…

 

“Who are you?” Axor leaned on the frame of the door.

 

“I’m sorry to disturb you, but this is very urgent. The king has asked you and your crew to go on a small peacekeeping mission on planet Questal. They have started a civil war, leading to many citizens needing safe passage to a refugee camp.” The messenger stated, making Axor sigh and rub his temples.

 

“You are set to leave tomorrow, we are very thankful for your services.” The messenger then walked away, leaving Axor with emotionally turmoil swelling up inside him.

 

How was he going to tell Lance?

 

Axor walked to his child’s room, and opened the door. The windows were opened but no sunlight came in, and bags were littered across the room. He looked up at the bed to see the toddler already tucked in; Lance seemed too lazy to have change into his pajamas, but he wasn’t lazy enough to not leave his gifts scattered about. Proven by his presents gently placed on his bedside table… the bedside was also handmade.

 

There on the table laid a ceramic Juniberry flower, his sword, a necklace with a Balmeran crystal pendant, and a container of blue semi-permanent face paint.  

 

Axor’s faced twisted at the face paint as he doubt Lance would use it at all. He didn’t think much about it though, as he walked towards the sleeping child. The guardian pushed back child’s hair gently, smiling to himself in the process. Axor kissed the top of Lance’s forehead, and pulled up the bed sheets of Lance’s bed.

 

“I’ll never leave you.” Axor whispered, before he hiccupped a sob, rubbing his eyes.

 

Was he crying?

 

Why?

 

Axor knew that he’ll be coming back, but that doesn’t mean he won’t miss the boy he grew to call son. This would be Axor’s first big mission since he found Lance on that foreign planet too.

 

He’ll be fine; it’s only a few days after all.

 

It’ll be fine.

 

Axor walked away from the room, closing the door behind him. He couldn’t sleep as he lay down on his bed, his thoughts and fears kept him awake.

 

The next day, Lance and Axor walked down towards the space cruisers. Lance was holding his guardian’s hand like it was the boy’s life source, and in Lance’s other hand was his toy sword.

 

As they headed down closer towards Axor’s ship, Lance spotted the faces of Vox, Aman and Jor through the many faces of strangers. Someone then suddenly grabbed the shoulder of the two year old, stopping Lance from moving up with his father onto the ramp towards the Altean spacecraft. This was the first time Lance was ever seeing a spaceship up close, he couldn’t help but to be in awe at the size of it compared to the toddler. Axor walked up the ramp to his space ship, looking back once more before entering.

 

Lance watched as all four spaceships left the planet, disappearing past the child’s line of sight. Out of nowhere, the young boy felt a wave of emotion come over him that he couldn’t suppress back. He grabbed the clothing of the stranger that was holding him, his tears soaking the Altean’s clothing; it felt like silk but was soft and warm like wool.

 

“It’ll be okay, young one. He’ll come back soon.” The calming voice of the man said; it was strong like one of a leader, but was soft and kind… like a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so excited to share this story with you that I couldn't wait to post a new chapter. 
> 
> Unfortunately, I will be busy with other things now, which means you won't be hearing from me for a while. 
> 
> I'm also thinking about adding a tag, but I'm afraid it'll spoil things so I've been thinking about that. 
> 
> I also want to tell you that in this story Haggar/Honerva and Lotor won't be mentioned in this story. 
> 
> P.S. This chapter came close after the previous one, so not a lot of people gave kudos. However, thanks to My_mind_is_Lance_centric and two guests (you know who you are). 
> 
> P.P.S. In the story, "Axor looked over at the tanned child, who was still crying like it was their birthday, which it was." was a referenced to the song 'It's My Party' by Lesley Gore.


	4. Everyone Cries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coran tells a story that nobody understands.

“The whole planet is going to chaos, my lord!”

 

“The planet is wondering what is going to happen, my lord!”

   


“We need to solve this problem quickly, my lord!”

 

“My lord!”

 

“My lord!”

 

“King Alfor!” The booming voice of a representative echoed throughout the meeting room, causing all the other representatives to quiet down, and the king to straighten up from his stressed, hunched over position from the head of the table. Alfor looked up from his tablet to see a stern looking elder advisor at the other end of the table.

 

“Yes, Representative Sorn?” Alfor said trying to keep his voice from shaking.

 

“We want to know what you plan on doing about the lack of successor. You do know how important this is, my lord?” Sorn said, raising an eyebrow that seemed to rise all the way up to his receding hairline, resulting in all the advisors to start to whisper between their fellow representative.

 

They doubted the leadership of Alfor, but it wasn’t rare for this to happen. Every meeting that Sorn was present in was a day that the people would have a reason to doubt Alfor authority. If Alfor’s hair wasn’t originally white, Sorn would’ve have been the reason it would turn entirely bleach white.

 

“I appreciate your dedication representatives, on keeping Altea on the straight and narrow path. However, the queen and I are currently working with the best alchemists in all of the several galaxies to find a solution to this pressing issue. I hope that you’ll be patient with me, and that we’re able to look for solutions for more pressing matters.” Alfor’s voice boomed throughout the meeting hall, and all the advisors grew still once more.

 

“Now, I would like to address the foreign aid initia-“ However before Alfor could speak, a loud cough was heard from a large door that was behind Representative Sorn. The king looked up from his tablet to see a man with bright orange hair peeking out from the doorway, ushering Alfor to meet him outside.

 

“I-I’m sorry, but I’m afraid we will have to cut this meeting short. I will have it rescheduled to a later date, thank you for your understanding.” Before anyone could say anything more, Alfor rose up from his chair and rushed towards the grand doors. The representatives all seemed to be in completely shock, mumbling to each other, as their eyes trailed after the young royal as he exited the room.

 

“Coran, what news do you have about the foreign aid mission on Questal?” Alfor grabbed the shorter man’s shoulders, eyes looking anxiously over Coran’s face.

 

“I think this should wait until we are in your chambers, sire.” Coran said straight-faced.

 

Alfor eyes narrowed for a second, but then quickly began to comply. It had been three deca-pheobs since Axor and his crew had gone on the peacekeeping mission on Questal, and since then all Alfor felt was regret for making the order for the crew to leave. Axor’s boy never seemed to leave his room in the castle, and nothing Alfor or the servants did to bait him out seemed to work.

 

As Coran and Alfor reached the door of the king and queen’s chambers, Alfor immediately grabbed Coran by his wrist and dragged him into the room.

 

“So, what is it? Why can’t you tell me? What’s going on?” Alfor said, bombarding the royal advisor with questions with no space in between.

 

“My king, I think you should sit down.”

 

“No! What is it? Tell me!” Alfor bellowed, rising to his full height, which would intimidate any creature in the many galaxies, Coran had seen this outburst more times than he could count.

 

“The crew, Alpha, was unfortunately… missing in action after an ambush that took hundreds of prisoners of war…” Coran said, lowering his eyes as he tried to hide the tears that were threatening to fall, but Alfor smiled oblivious to the slimmer man’s tears.

 

“Well get the soldiers, then! We have to save them! I was so worried, I though they h-“

 

“Recently…there-there was a public execution of the leaders of the refugee camps. I-I’m a afraid that… they’re de-they’re dead, Alfor.” Coran said, not able to hold back the tears anymore his tears began to cascade down his face. Coran made an attempt to make him look presentable by grabbing his handkerchief and blows his nose.

_  
_

_THUMP!_

  


Coran looked up to the source of the noise to see his king knelt over on the floor with his head in his hands.

 

“No, no, no, no… That can’t be real… This is… This is all my fault, Coran.” Alfor stated as Coran quickly fell down on his knees to embrace the bulkier Altean.

 

“If-If only I was able to form Voltron with the other paladins we wouldn’t be in the mess we currently are in. Axor would be home with his son, and there would-there would be peace throughout the galaxy. It’s only because of me that there is chaos throughout the universe… It’s all my fault.” Alfor leaned into Coran’s shoulder; Coran was using all his strength to support the weight of his king.

 

“You know… This reminds me of when my grandfather took me to the Dalterian Belt, and placed me onto his shoulders. Being ninety-five deca-pheobs old he wasn’t about to support my weight and crumbled in a matter of ticks. It resulted in our trip being cut short, and I felt so terrible that I couldn’t help him as I was only eight deca-pheobs… but my grandmother took me by the hand and gave me my favourite dessert. She told me that I shouldn’t be sad because they found out that grandpapa actually had developed a disorder causing weak knees which mean that he wouldn’t be able to walk again.” Coran recounted, causing Alfor to look up to his loyal advisor, and to tilt his head to the side, Coran however ignored the obvious confusion on the king’s face and continued his tale.

 

“I soon found out that grandpapa enjoyed knitting, but never had anytime for it because he was always running your father. He soon became the best knitter in all of Altea, opening up his dream shop! Sometimes he would even give me a five percent family discount! I could buy you one if you would like, I think blue would look great o-“ Coran stopped after seeing Alfor smiling at him, causing his face to go hot.

 

“I apologize… I was rambling again, wasn’t I?” Coran said, before helping Alfor up from his place on the ground.

 

“It’s alright Coran, I appreciate your attempt at comforting me. I think… I shouldn’t hold this news to myself any longer… I hope you could excuse me for a moment; there is something that I-I will have to do now …” Alfor began to leave the room, his navy blue cape trailing behind him.

 

“Alfor? If you are going to tell the child… I think you should give him this; it’s the report that was given to me. Again, I-I’m sorry about what happen with Axor… I know you two were good friends.” Coran said, watching as Alfor grabbed the tablet from the advisor’s hand before leaving through the door, and leaving the orange-haired man by himself in the empty room in the process.

 

Alfor slowly walked down the halls, avoiding the stares of the commuting servants around the castle. After walking for a few minutes, the king finally reached the guest chambers.

 

It was the room where Lance was currently hiding away.

 

Alfor sighed raising his fist up to the door before knocking hesitantly,

 

“Lance? Are you in there? I-I need to talk to you.” Alfor said, pausing to see if Lance would open the door, but was only given a view of a metal door.

 

“Lance, please. I need to talk you… I-It’s about Axor, It’s about where he is so please op-“ Before Alfor could even finish his plea, the metal door slid open. The taller man looked down to see the angry eyes of the young boy.

 

“What? What did you hear from my dad?” Lance asked quickly, he had his hand on the touch pad just in case he had to close back the door.

 

“I have this letter for you.” Alfor said, handing over his tablet to him. Lance went on his toes to grab for it before looking over, he then paused and his face grew red.

 

“…I…I can’t read.” Lance mumbled before handing it back to him, Alfor’s mouth was laid agape, before smiling slightly at the alien boy.

 

“May I come in?” Alfor asked, watching as Lance nodded before moving out the way, his eyes still glued to the floor.

 

Lance flopped on to the grand bed, while Alfor sat down on the desk chair. The king waited a minute for Lance to get comfortable, before spilling the bad news.

 

“Axor… Your father… has unfortunately passed away.”

 

“W-What?”

 

“Your father, and his crew have died. I-I’m sorry Lance, I know that you two were very close. I should tell you are always welcome to stay at the cas-“

 

“Get out.”

 

“Lanc-“

 

“GET OUT!” Lance hopped off the bed, pulling and shoving Alfor out of the room with all the strength he possessed.

 

Alfor turned around to see only a metal door slammed on face; he then leaned into the door.

 

“Lance? I’m not going anywhere; I’ll be right here if you need to talk… Okay?”

 

“GO AWAY!”

 

The Altean sighed deeply before sliding down the door, and began to think about what would he do if this were his son. The child he was beginning to think will never come… If Alfor could do anything to help this child grow, he’ll do it.

 

He owed it to Axor to take care of this child.

 

Alfor heard sobs coming from the other side of the door.

 

“You know my father passed away too…” Alfor said, resting his head on the door.

 

“When I was seventeen deca-pheobs my father died in battle. Everyone praised him as a hero, and gave their condolences, but I felt like they could never understand what I felt. He didn’t leave any instructions on what to do if he passed, all he did was leave a cold crown on my head and a country to rule. I didn’t know anything, nothing at all… I was completely alone.” Alfor paused for moment before continuing his tale.

 

“But your-your father-Axor was there for me, him and me used to fight as kids, but when I needed him the most… He was there for me, thick and thin. I would be able to tell him anything, and the fact that I don’t have that anymore… It hurts. Losing my friend, it makes me angry… I was angry because I couldn’t have done anything to stop his death.” Alfor hands formed a fist, taking the time to take a deep sigh before opening his mouth to speak.

 

“I recently heard of his death, and in that moment, I felt like the loneliest person in the world. I hope… I hope that if you feel that way too that you are able to know… that you’re not alone, and I’m… I’m sorry I couldn’t save your father. I really am Lance.” Alfor rested his head between his knees, hoping and praying that no one would see him like this.

 

For the next four hours, Alfor waited outside the cold door. Sitting there on the ground made him look less like a king of a grand kingdom, and more like a drunken commoner that was lying outside of the local tavern. The sobbing on the other side of the door stopped hours ago, but the door didn’t seem to be opening anytime soon. Finally giving up, the king gets up from the cold ground and dusts himself off, giving one last look at the door.

 

However, just as he was going to walk away from the barrier that separated him from Lance, he starts to hear the soft pitter patter of footsteps grow louder as it got closer and closer towards the door. The door then opened and Alfor felt two tiny arms wrap around his hips. The vulnerable king turned over to see the alien boy crying into his silky, and woolen cape, burying his face deeply into the blue fabric. Alfor’s heart melted as he began to turn to the child, reciprocating back the warm embrace of the other.

 

It was truly a sad day in Altea but,

 

_When an old plant dies, a new plant begins to grow._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if Axor's death was a surprise for readers as I foreshadowed it in the last chapter. 
> 
> I know that many characters cried in this chapter, but most children cry right? And aren't adults just huge children? 
> 
> Crying is all a part of the grieving process, I've seen many people grieve in their own way and sometimes crying is just the most easiest way to convey how you are feeling. 
> 
> So.... Don't be afraid to cry sometimes.
> 
> P.S. Thank you to My_mind_is_Lance_centric, and the 5 guests that gave kudos! I would also like to thank Skyress98, flora_chan, and Reuben_Aloway for bookmarking! Finally, I would like to thank Niyah606 for commenting! 
> 
> Thank you!


	5. Do you want to be alone?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All around was endless darkness, an empty void of nothingness. 
> 
> Cold… Lonely… Emptiness. 
> 
> “Lance.” A smooth windy voice called out the little child’s name. 
> 
> The sound echoed softly across the vast void.
> 
> “Who’s there?” 
> 
> “Lance, you’re alone…” 
> 
> “Who are you?” 
> 
> “Your family left you…. Abandoned you…”
> 
> “That’s not true! They’re heroes!” 
> 
> “Heroes? Where are they now? No one will save you…. You’re alone…”
> 
> …
> 
> “You’ll always be alone.” 
> 
> …
> 
> “Do you want to be alone?”

“Child?"

 

“Child, it’s time to wake up.”

 

Light flashed through the room, causing the boy to squint at the sudden brightness. Lance rubbed his eyes, feeling a faint moistness on his cheeks, opening his eyes to see a man with a strange orange mustache opening up the blinds with a touch pad before turning to the child on top of the bed.

 

“Ah, woken up I see… I’ve gotten your breakfast all ready! I apologize that I won’t be with you the whole day, however I’ll be coming back in five vargas to escort you to see the King. He’s requested to see you, so please be ready when I come to get you. I believe five vargas is more than enough time for you to be able to explore the castle as much as you would like. So… Have fun.” With a smile the quirky man walked out the door, leaving Lance by himself.

 

A soon as Lance heard the closing of the door; Lance swiftly began to hopped off the bed and crawled underneath. Underneath there were sounds of shuffling, before boy scooted out with a small box in his hands, along with a dusty old toy sword.

 

The box didn’t look like anything special, in fact it looked like it was found at the bottom of the trash. Lance however, looked at like it was the greatest thing in the world, his eyes grew wet, and lip began to tremble, as he open the box up.

Everything in there had a light covering of dust, and the only thing that was there was a necklace, a dusty ceramic flower, and a blue circular container that looked never opened. Lance lifted the necklace up and looked at it as the light shined through it, blue light cascaded on the floor, and a melancholic smile spread across the boy’s face.

 

“Uncle Jor! There you are!” The boy exclaimed before putting it on, grabbing the container, and then closed the box, sliding it under the bed. He ran towards the floor mirror across the room before opening the container to see blue face paint that was inside.

 

It took several tries, but finally Lance was able to remake the thing that he had seen so many times before.

 

There on his sun tanned skin were two blue Altean marks in all their glory. Lance paused, studied his reflection with a concentrated look, before a wide smile erupted on his face.

 

“Looking good!” The boy winked at his reflection, grabbed a fruit from the wide display of Altean-grown food, and ran out the room.

 

It’s been a year since Lance had learned about the… the deaths of team Alpha. Lance spent many days in his room, refusing to leave, but eventually childish curiosity got the best of him causing him to leave and explore every crevice of the castle.

 

He didn’t want anyone to know what he was doing or even talk to him, and after noticing that every time someone would talk to Lance he would run away at a speed that no one seem to match, the palace staff got the memo to leave him alone. Lance found all of the less populated routes to avoid other people, and soon everyone quickly forgot that he was there.

 

Lance climbed through vents and ran down corridors, he jumped out of windows, and sweep pasted castle staff. It seemed that Lance could get into any room he wanted, if they had a big enough window, but this room didn’t have windows, in fact the only thing that kept Lance from reaching his destination was the castle wall.

 

The castle barely had any greenery outside, as most of the outside space was covered in white concert, the only place of fauna and flora was either in the courtyard or in the very back of the castle.

 

The castle walls needed constant maintenance, as it would weaken over time by the small boiling hot rocks that would drop out of the sky from time to time, but sometimes there were places that they forget to fix and Lance used it as a quick shortcut to his destinations.

 

He broke a part of the weakened wall, and crawled through it resulting in being covered in dirt. It didn’t seem to bother Lance however, as when he final climbed out of the small tunnel he completely ignored his complexion and instead gave a look of awe at the beautiful greenery that surrounded him.

 

The garden was locked on the other side, and it seemed to have been forgotten about by the rest of the castle; the plants were long dead and looked like there was no life in the place at all. The castle was so huge from the six year olds’ eyes that it seemed reasonable for someone to forget about this small part of the castle.

 

Lance ran over to the center where a moss-covered and worn out well was placed. It looked very out of place and foreign from the high tech castle, in fact it looked like it was going to topple over any second now, but that stop Lance from pulling on the rope that hung off it. He pulled and pulled, before finally reaching up on his tippy toes to grab the bucket filled with water.

 

Lance didn’t pause for a second, running towards a corner of the garden where gardening tools were placed. The boy dug out the old, wrinkled plants, before planting and watering new ones in their place. It took hours and hours to replace all of them, but with worn out fingernails and dirtied clothes, the boy finished the task, collapsing on the ground with a huge sigh.

 

He watched as the clouds shifted through the pure blue sky, watching as sliver ships flew across, like fish in a clear blue river. He reached his blistered and bruised hands up, almost wanting to join them, to explore and protect the universe… Just like his dad had done.

 

Watching the sun begin to turn the sky into a dark purple, Lance eyes widen to the size of saucers, he recalling what the mustache man I told him.

 

_“I’ll be coming back in five vargas to escort you to see the King.”_

“Oh no!” Lance quickly got up, and quickly made his way out of his sanctuary, scurrying away towards his room as fast as a six year old could. Lance opened the door to see no one inside, causing the boy’s heartbeat to slow down in unadulterated relief.

 

“There you are!” Suddenly an orange haired Altean popped out from the side of Lance’s bed, causing the boy to jump back startled.

 

“I was looking everywhere for you! You’ve got me worried sick! What if a wild Yalmor had gotten you? Or maybe a rabid Snick! How do you think the King will feel?” Coran began to pace back and forth in front of the boy, whose head was down, ashamed. Coran stopped his pacing; seeing the young boy’s guilty expression caused the Altean to feel a sudden deep sinking feeling in his stomach.

 

“My apologies, my dear boy. I shouldn’t be so harsh on you; I remember when I was your age… Ah, yes, time sure did fly by back then, I would lose track of time so much that on every birthquintant my family gave me a watch!” Coran laughed, then looked at the watch on his wrist and back at the alien boy.

 

“I have so many, I think I can let you have one…” Then took his own watch off and handed it to Lance, smiling as he looked at the boy; his eyes widen with youthful wonder.

 

“If you press this button here, you’ll be able to know the time.” Coran said, watching as Lance jumped back a hologram clock showed up. It was filled with hands that and numbers that Lance didn’t know what to do with.

 

“Now, no more wasting time. We must race as fast as an angry klanmüirl to the meeting room!” Just as Coran said the word ‘race’ Lance perked up.

 

“A race! I’m great at races! Try to keep up!” Lance dashed out of the room with those parting words.

 

“Wait child! You might get hurt!” Coran began dashing after the boy, hoping to stop Lance before he got himself into real trouble.

 

However, as Coran finally reached the meeting room, he was completely out of breath and felt like he was about to past out any moment, he was an advisor and not a personal trainer for a reason.

 

“Alright, give me a tick… Woo… Quizack, you are fast.” When Coran had finally gotten enough strength to knock on the door, a voice responded back:

 

“Come in.” The fun atmosphere that surrounded Lance and Coran drifted away, and the voice made Lance shiver to the core.

 

Lance took a step closer inside the room, looking back to see that Coran wasn’t following him.

 

“You wanted to see me, sir?” Lance asked, taking another step inside the room. Alfor was on the other side of a meeting room table, where a large three-dimensional hologram displayed what looked like a map.

 

“Don’t be scared son, I won’t bite. Please, close the door behind you.” Alfor said, giving a kind smile to the boy. Hesitatively, Lance walked towards the side of Alfor, going on his the tip of his toes to look over on the map.

 

“This here is the map of all of Altea… I have the responsibility to serve and protect all of the people here….” Lance looked up at the tall Altean, the light from the hologram made him look even grander up close.

 

“However, when your father died… I had failed my job as a protector.” A thick, sudden tension filled the air.

 

“This would be your first birthquintant without team Alpha… Isn’t it?” Lance held his breath for a second… He didn’t even notice that today was his birthquintant, and the suddenly a wave of emotion overwhelmed him.

 

“I know you feel alone, Lance, but you aren’t and I want you to know that.” Alfor paused, before speaking again.

 

“That’s why I want to show you something…” Alfor waved his hand over the map, causing four statues to appear over the map. Alfor then lifted the child up to see the overview of the map, causing Lance to gasp.

 

The statues were of the people that Lance had consider to be family: Jor, Aman, Vox, and Axor, faces that overtime have faded slightly in Lance’s memory.

 

“Your family… They were protectors, and I want their legacy to live on, both in you and in Altea. These statues were placed in the four corners of Altea, for all Alteans to know that they will always be someone looking out for them, protecting them. They’ll never be forgotten, Lance, and you’ll never be alone.” Alfor then took a deep breath.

 

“I know that this a bit too sudden, however want you to feel like you’re a part of something. I know it’s hard not being able to fit in with the other children of Altea, but I want you to fill like Altea-that _I’ll_ aways be there for you. The only way I can think of doing that is if you became a part of my family, Lance.” Alfor turned to look in to Lance’s dark blue eyes, filled with emotion like the raging oceans. It was obvious the boy was confused, at the suggestion.

 

“Would you like to become the prince of Altea, son?” Alfor asked again, watching as Lance’s eyes widen before pressing his face, nodding vigorously against the King’s cape, one thought on his mind:

 

_“I don’t want to be alone.”_

* * *

 

Lance had fell asleep on Alfor’s shoulder after the sudden rollercoaster of a day he’s been on, Alfor couldn’t blame him… The emotionally stress of such a big offer would make anyone knock out faster than a light. The King quietly placed the child into his bed, and smiled at the boy’s smudged Altean marks resulting from Lance’s tears.

 

The King began his walk back to his room to rest before his next big meeting with the representatives, he couldn’t wait to tell all of them the big news and get them off of his back with the worry of a heir. However, instead of walking in his room with peace and quiet, he saw his eccentric advisor, pacing back and forth so fast that it looked like the Altean was going to drill a ditch into the king’s chamber. Coran looked up from his pacing and stopped with his face redder than the king’s favourite fruit.  

 

“You do know that I am completely loyal to you, King Alfor?”

 

“Yes, of course I do Coran! Why would you even ask that?”

 

“So when I say you are out of your crankers if you want a non-Altean boy to be the successor to Altea, I mean it only in the best of intentions.”

 

“You were eavesdropping on me, royal advisor?”

 

“Yes! Only because I know you, my king.”

 

“If you know me, then you should have a little faith in me, Coran! He’ll grow into a _great_ prince of Altea!”

 

“Yes, but don’t you think that something is missing?”

 

“And what would that be?”

 

“Well, maybe the fact that he’s not Altean! The people will be as mad as a wet chüper!”

 

“Lance has Altean marks.”

 

“He does?”

 

“Yes, didn’t you see the ones he painted on?”

 

“What about his ears?”

 

“A common deformity seen in many Altean children.”

 

“He’ll stick out like a choferiak’s nose! You can’t obviously think this is a good idea.“

 

“Yes, I do! Having an heir will be good for him and lessen the worry the people of Altea have for the lack of a successor. See? Hitting two Duflaxs with one stone.”

 

“And there’s no way I can talk you out of this?”

 

“Relax Coran, you worry too much for someone your age. This will work; Lance will be integrated into Altean culture smoothly, and nobody will know the difference.” The king moved past the worried Altean, took off his cape before lying down on his grand double bed.

 

“I do hope you are right, my lord.”

 

“Of course I am! Now excuse me, but I want to get some shuteye before I have to face the representatives and… my wife.” Hearing Coran sigh heavily, and the door slide open and close, the king stared at the ceiling before closing his eyes and letting sleep overtake him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was a long one, but I wanted to get it out there. 
> 
> It's optional that you read the chapter summary, but I think that it brings a deeper connection on to what Lance is going through.
> 
> I have another chapter coming up soon, because it's shorter than the other ones and was a lot more fun to write. 
> 
> P.S. Thank you for Nora12, Kittyjune26, Alexis9264, and JonoDragonPrime for giving kudos! Thank you to Neifz for commenting and giving kudos, and thank you to NotSoSubtlyBi for bookmarking!
> 
> Thank you!


	6. The Birth of Royalty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is the universe ready for unity?

Luckily the representatives had bought the story of Alfor deciding to adopt an Altean child to become the heir of Altea. If you were to ask the King who’s idea was it, Alfor would always say it was the Queen’s.

 

A few pheobs passed and the story was the universe’s gossip; an adopted prince or princess was never out of the question, many kings and queens before King Alfor’s reign had adopted before, but nobody had seen this future heir, which made everyone not help but to think who this boy was.

 

_“I think that he has blond hair and bright blue eyes, like the main character in my original novel ‘Love in the Multiverse’.”_

_“He must be muscular, and very strong if King Alfor picked him. Only the best for Altea you know.”_

_“What if it’s girl?”_

_“Why would it be a girl?”_

_“They could be throwing us off track!”_

 

The words ‘what if’ became the most popular words in all of the several universes, and everyone was counting down to the day of the coronation. Some people camped outside the castle, and max security was set up all across the castle, nobody could sneak in or out of Altea without the proper authorization.

 

Then the quintant finally came:

 

“I now pronounce you, Prince Lance of Altea!”

_“He’s nothing how I would expect him to look like.”_

 

_“Why does he look so tired?”_

_“How old is he?”_

_“I hear he’s only six deca-pheobs old.”_

_“Six! Must be hard…”_

_“He looked like he was about to past out.”_

_“I hope he’s okay.”_

_“He’s the prince of Altea; imagine how much food you get to eat! You can get anything you want!”_

_“He’s so young.”_

 

_“He looks weak, how can King Alfor think that a scrawny boy like that can rule?”_

After the coronation, Alteans only saw him during festivals, which was pretty rare, but when they did the young Prince Lance looked exhausted. It looked like he just came from running a marathon, and came up last. However, the prince was always seen smiling anytime the Alteans saw him.

 

After no response coming from the prince or the royals, the gossip simmered down and everything seemed like nothing happened at all.

 

Then news struck a pheob later:

 

_“The Queen is having a baby!”_

_“A baby!”_

_“It’s a miracle!”_

_“Is it a boy or girl?”_

_“I hear the alchemists saying it’s a girl!”_

_“A girl!”_

_“Wait, does that mean that she’ll be the heir to Altea then?”_

_“No, the first born is always the one to rule.”_

_“Darn it, I kind of don’t like this prince.”_

_“He’s not good enough.”_

_“He must be lazy, because we never see him anymore.”_

_“I once saw him buy a ball for an Altean child though!”_

_“He’s a try hard.”_

_“Give the boy a break.”_

_“Maybe this one will be better.”_

_“Maybe.”_

And then after nine pheobs, a princess was born, a miracle for all to see. She had white platinum hair, and bright blue eyes, brighter than the brightest sky.

 

As she grew, so did her kindness and talent. She was seen taken care of children, and grew an interest in Altean alchemy and exploration. Scholars had said that her beauty was as great as her intelligence:

 

_“Much better than the heir himself.” They say._

Voltron was soon formed, a peacekeeping battalion that was predicted by both scholars and the representatives to never be a reality. However, there was a sudden speed and fast progress made to the project causing Voltron to be formed in twelve deca-pheobs, less than the prediction of fifty deca-pheobs.

 

The strong bond between the pilots of Voltron brought peace to all universes, and brought an age of peace. Nothing could break the friendships the pilots had, causing mast progress to be made.

 

Then…

_“Did you hear about Zarkon?”_

_“I hear that Voltron broke up because of Zarkon.”_

_“I hear that he’s gaining an army to get the lions.”_

_“Isn’t the Black Lion enough?”_

_“Not for him.”_

_“The Galra are planning a mast genocide.”_

_“I’m scared.”_

_“What is Alfor going to do?”_

_“Word must be heard to the representatives by now. They’ll do something.”_

_“King Alfor can’t peacemake his way out of this situation.”_

_“Is peacemake evening a word?”_

_“Shut up.”_

_“King Alfor may be a wise and just king… But that won’t be his downfall…”_

Alfor didn’t need the representatives’ word for this problem, because he knew this himself.

 

Zarkon will attack to get the lions…

 

Alfor and Zarkon were the closest friends, how could Zarkon just throw that away?

 

Zarkon may have forgotten about the friendships he had before being overruled by greed, but Alfor won’t.

 

_“… King Alfor will always drown by peace and pride.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Sorry for the long wait! 
> 
> I know I said that this chapter would be out soon, however I normally write the next chapter before posting the present chapter. 
> 
> I've decided to quit that process because of the fact that I didn't feel like I was writing something organic, so hopefully you'll get the next chapter around the end of June, and get another one in August. 
> 
> P.S. Thank you to Kitten046, Runereader, Mini_Zombie, and the many guests that gave kudos. Also, thanks to 65houseplants for giving kudos and bookmarking.


	7. His Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile in the Galran Empire...

“Keith! Keith, where are you?” A man dashed down the purple coloured halls of the Galra spacecraft, however strangely, the man wasn’t purple himself.

 

“Here?” The man’s head peaked through one of the training rooms, before ducking, avoiding a laser to him head. There was no way they could replace his head, as fast as they replaced his left hand with Galra tech. He checked all of the training rooms, but there was no sign of the rare ‘Keith’ anywhere.

 

Until suddenly a figure pasted his eye, it only took a split second for the man to glance at the face of the individual, and before the figure could even leave his vicinity, the man placed his hand in front of the figure’s way.

 

“Keith.” The man scolded, watching as Keith backed up with his head down.

“I was looking everywhere for you! Didn’t you hear the P.A.? All soldiers head to the main deck, Zarkon- I mean, Emperor Zarkon will have our heads if we’re late.”

 

“It won’t be the first time they took something from us.” Keith snapped, crossing his arms, causing the man to sigh and push back his white bangs.

 

“I know that you don’t like this, but we have get use to it. Do you remember the first thing I taught you? Rule number 1, learn to a-“

 

“Learn to adapt, I know Shiro. It’s just… It just I’m tired of… I’m tired of all this!” Keith said, raising his voice a bit too loud for Shiro’s liking.

 

“I know Keith, but you need to calm down. You have to learn that this is our life now, and learn to deal with it. Now hurry up, we’re already late.” Shiro sighed turning around and walking towards the main deck of the spaceship, feeling Keith’s glare to the back of his head.

 

“… We just need to wait for the right moment… We have a lot at stake at the moment.” He heard Keith sigh in response, with a quiet “I know.”

 

Walking through the doors, all the soldiers were lined up in front of a large projection looking straight ahead at the two new arrivals at the door.

 

“Prisoner 12045, and the Champion do you know the punishment for being late?” The projection said looking straight at Keith and Shiro causing Keith to flinch.

 

“Yes, Emperor Zarkon. Under your command we will ensure this will not occur ag-.” Shiro said, keeping his head down before he was interrupted by the booming almost robotic voice of the head of the Galra.

 

“Everyone except for the Champion and Prisoner 12045 will leave.” Upon the command, the room began to empty quickly except for one who seemly refused to move.

 

“I won’t repeat myself again, Commander Sendak.” Shiro watched as the Commander looked up in surprise before leaving hesitatingly, Zarkon’s glaze buried itself into the back of the Galran Commander until Sendak was no longer in sight.

 

“You two are my strongest soldiers yet, and I have issued the rest of the fleet to be on guard for an upcoming war between the Alteans and the Galran Empire.” The two figures looked through the projection with no sound or objection.

 

“However, King Alfor isn’t a man of war… and that is his weakness. He had send a message saying that he would like to have one more chance of peace… A chance, we will exploit. I will be sending both of you as a peacekeeping between us as you are the strongest soldiers in the whole fleet.”

 

No thank yous were given at the statement.

 

“However, you will not be upholding this peace treaty. You will be infiltrating the castle, and grabbing the heirs of Altea, Prince Lance, and Princess Allura as hostages.”

 

“You may wonder… Why you? Strength is only a small aspect of why I have chosen you two. In return for giving the heirs to the Galran Empire, I will give you a ship… and Prisoner 18901.” Keith’s eyes widen at the sound of the prisoner’s number.

 

“Be at the flight deck tomorrow. I suspect you will be on time, no more second chances.”

 

“Thank you, Emperor Zarkon. We won’t disappoint.” Shiro said, and then the projection disappeared.

 

“Keith, I-“ Shiro went to look back, but only saw the distant figure of the male rushing out of the room, the door closing behind him.

 

 

Keith raced down a long passage of hallways that if anyone wanted to follow him would get lost in no time. The lights began to dim, and the number of guards started to increase. Until Keith stopped, right at door number 18901.

 

He knocked on the metal door ten times, pausing before knocking once. A long pause erupted before he heard the door knock back ten times pausing and then knocking once more, cuing him to kneel in front of the closed doors.

 

“Mom?” Keith whispered.

 

“I’m here.” A weak, but smooth voice came from the other side.

 

“We’re almost free.”

 

“What do you mean, Keith?”

 

“I’m going to get us out of here.”

 

“Keith no.”

 

“You don’t understand, Zarkon gave me and Shiro a mission in return of our freedom. We’re finally getting out of here.” Keith placed his hand on the metal door.

 

“I don’t want you doing something you regret, Keith. Remember what I told you?” Keith didn’t see or hear the hand on the other side of the door, but he felt it was there.

 

“Don’t worry… I’ll be back soon.” He began to get up, but paused when he heard his mom on the side speak.

 

“If you’re set on this… Just… Be careful, Keith…” Keith then heard a group of footsteps growing nearer, making it his cue to leave. He placed his head against the door, before getting up and walking past the guards that were heading towards that hallway. There was no way he would get her out of here by himself, even with Shiro… This was his only chance.

 

He wasn’t going to give this chance up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably the shortest chapter I've written so far, but I was thinking about putting Keith and Shiro's arrival to Altea in this chapter. 
> 
> I rather just put in the separate chapter, but I'll be really busy this month. I want to be able to post a chapter in the middle of August, but that's no promise of course. 
> 
> Honestly the feedback that I've been getting from this story is tremendous, and I truly want to write more. Life has no reverse or pause button, so you can look forward to one in December if I don't give a chapter in August. 
> 
> P.S. Thank you to ClaraBFangirl, and the many guests for kudos! Also thanks to Neifz for commenting, Jemand, who helped me correct my comment in Chapter 2, and who I gave credit to in that chapter, and finally to Sasubu for commenting and for creating beautiful fan art that I still can't believe someone created art off of something I wrote. 
> 
> Words can't describe how great their art is, so I'll send a link to her tumblr for you to see instead:  
> https://weird-consistence.tumblr.com/ 
> 
> *If you would like to see the art they created for "In Fields of Wild Juniberries", go check it out in the comments because this note has gone longer than the actual chapter*


	8. The Cold Morning & The Warm Sunrise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dawn breaks, and the peace treaty is about to begin. Lance has disappeared somewhere, and the books tell Allura not to trust the Galran Empire. Books are never wrong after all.

As the sun broke through the horizon, a young Altean approached her window pushing the curtains aside, allowing the bright golden light to flow into her room. Her long platinum hair was blowing through the wind, as she saw all the servants and soldiers began their daily routine. She had planned on helping them set up for the treaty agreement that was happening today, but things change.

 

The Altean turned around to look at the pile of tablets and scrolls on top of her desk. All of them contained the ideas that were running through her head like a treadmill… All of them rejected personally by king of Altea himself.

 

As she sighed, a knock erupted at the door. She glided across the floor, her long ceremonial gown shadowed behind her. She was up and ready for hours in preparation for this occasion, because she never felt the need for personal servants; a quiet room filled with people made her feel awkward, like she had to fill the void somehow.

 

She opened the door, and instead of a servant, a friendly face graced her presence.

 

“Coran, come in!” She smiled brightly moving to the side to allow, the Altean she considered to be family, walk in.

 

“No need, Princess! I am here to announce that the Galra fleet will be landing on Altea soon... And I need to know if you have seen Lance anywhere? All of his servants have wandering around like wild gazurgas, and…“

 

Of course Allura knows where he is… Surrounded by servants and women probably. Everyone far and wide knew about the famous Crown Prince of Altea, and acting head over heels for him. Yeah right, it was obvious that they were only after his title, but being Lance he was too oblivious to their hidden intentions.

 

“Princess? Are you all right, you look like you just woke up from being in a cryopod for five deca-pheobs.” Coran said, causing Allura to jump out of her thoughts.

 

“Sorry Coran… Um, have you tried the library?”

 

“The library of course! I must be snarloft in the cranker! I’ll go ri-“ Suddenly a beep was heard from his watch, causing his eyes to widen.

 

“I’m behind schedule! I need to deal with the dinner plates! You can’t have a peace treaty without the traditional dinner plates, and then there are the traditional tablecloths! You absolutely cannot have a peace treaty without the traditional tablecloths, and the carpet has to be cleaned an-“

 

“Coran! You don’t have to worry! I’ll make sure Lance is ready for the treaty, you just worry about those traditional dinner plates!” Allura laughed at the antics of their most trusted advisor.

 

“Really? You’re truly a gift, Princess! Thank you!” Before Allura could say anything, Coran left running down the hall. As he left Allura’s sight, Allura began her trip to the library, knowing the route like the back of her hand. When she finally reached her destination, she had to stand there in admiration. There stood the largest source of knowledge in all of Altea, and she lived only a few steps away from it, honestly it was a huge privilege.

 

When she walks closer the doors open automatically, revealing shelves and shelves of books. The massive glass window allowed the orange rays of the sun to cascade into the room, giving the room a heavenly glow; it was one of the only rooms that had a carpet in it, and it gave a cozy feeling that made Allura feel like she could just live here forever. It’s not like anyone would miss her anyway.

 

As she wonders through the hallways, she looks around to spot anything of her brother.

 

“Lance? Where are you?” She whispered, looking around, even tempted to look on top of the shelves just in case Lance was stupid enough to climb on top of the bookshelves. Suddenly, she spotted a familiar person, their head on top of an Altean Alchemy book, and his desk facing a white board.

 

“Lance must have been ‘studying’ again…” Allura thought, but like Lance would be studying. Allura remembered hearing one of the tutors complaining about him to one of their co-workers that Lance would never catch on to anything that would be taught in the basic Altean curriculum. It was like he was born on another planet or something.

 

She began to walk towards the Crown Prince, before giving the table a hard slam. It shook the table, and jumped Lance awake.

 

“How are plants water if there’s no rain?” Lance spouts loudly before realizing where he is.

 

“That is a good question, but a better question would be why is your head in the table?” Allura laughed, grabbing the book that was under her older brother’s hand causing his hand to slip and his face to fall back onto the table.

 

“W-what happened? Where’s Professor Layton?” Lance asked rubbing his eyes roughly.

 

“Class ended a varga ago, Lance!” Allura stated placing the book back on the correct shelf, and shaking her head smiling while Lance rubs his eyes causing him to yawn in the process.

 

“Are you even ready for the treaty?” Allura asked annoyed.

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

“The peace treaty between the Alteans and the Galra Empire? I had sent the announcement two days ago to you.” Allura said.

 

“That’s today, I thought that was tomorrow! I’m not even ready!” The statement caused Allura to sigh.

 

“Don’t worry I can help you get read-“

 

“PRINCE LANCE!” A servant rushed in, not caring about the Altean code of being quiet in a library.

 

“You aren’t even ready! You got to go get ready for the peace treaty!” The servant began to push the crown prince towards the exit, not even allowing Lance to look back at Allura.

 

The library doors closed behind the fleeting Alteans, leaving the princess all by herself. She looked at the clock noticing that she had, she would guess to be five vargas, before the Galrans had completely set foot on the soils of Altea. She visited the spacecraft hangar before, watching Altean soldiers fly in and out. It was absolutely essential that the pilot has everything they need before take off and landing, sometimes double, even triple checking was required.

 

She walked to one of the shelves, picking one up a very thick book about Galran culture. It was obvious that these were outdated. After Zarkon stole the Black Lion, all Galran refused to share anything about their planet, in case of disclosing any potential weaknesses.

 

Galrans were known to keep to themselves, the complete opposite to Alteans. Galrans didn’t have many close allies, their biggest ally being Altea, but now they were completely alone. For some reason that made them more powerful than ever before, dominating any planet that they came across.

 

Finishing the book, Allura closed it to look at the time. She should be going, but she knew that even if she didn’t she probably wouldn’t be missed much. Second in line meant that she wasn’t important in making official decisions, but she was important enough to not be allowed anywhere outside of the castle without half an armada coming along with her.

 

She made her way to the main hall, her heels clicking were the only thing making a sound. It was so quiet, she almost felt like she was the only one there. However, it didn’t last long because as she headed closer to the main hall, she heard the rustling of servants become louder and louder. The doors opened for her, and as she walked in she saw her father talking to… Lance, of course.

 

“I’m surprise you made it on time, son!”

 

“Coran keeps on giving me watches for my birthquintants, I don’t even know where to put them.” Lance sighed; they were oblivious to the fact that Allura was there, and honestly she felt a little awkward breaking into their conversation. Deciding the better option would be to stand off to the side, she walked over to King Alfor’s left side. She wonders what she should say, if she ever gets the chance, and then she remembers the idea she thought about this morning.

 

“Father?” Allura interrupts the conversation between her family members.

 

“Allura! I heard that you were the one that woke up our sleeping beauty here! I’m glad you were there, or there would probably be havoc looking everywhere for him. Honestly, I think we should place a tracker on him…” Alfor joked, whispering the last sentence to Allura like it was some kind of treasonous plan.

 

“Heh, father I really need to talk you about my idea. You know the one about life insurance for soldiers’ families?” Allura asked.

 

“Ah yes that is an amazing idea Allura. I actually wanted to talk to you about it! I never found the time, but right now is a perfect time to tal-“ Then a booming voice was heard causing everyone to freeze.

 

“May I present Commander Sendak from the Galra Empire, representative of Emperor Zarkon!” An Altean footman stated, bowing before cuing the servants to open the doors for Altea’s guests.

 

There stood a tall boorish-looking Galran with an eye prosthetic, and a violet energy gauntlet that looked like it replaced the lost of his left arm. Beside either side of him was two smaller looking men, they almost looked Altean but without Altean marks. One looked like they were almost the height of Alfor, with an arm prosthetic, and white hair matching hers in a way. On the other side of the Galran was a shorter, slimmer built man. Looking at the three of them she knew that they were up to no good.

 

“You are in the presence of King Alfor of Altea, pilot of the Blue Lion, and father of Crown Prince Lance and Princess Allura. ” The same footman stated, as the three of them walked closer towards the Altean royalty.

 

“We welcome you to Altea, Commander Sendak.” King Alfor offered his hand to the Galran commander, but was left empty-handed.

 

“Enough of the pleasantries, King Alfor. Let’s talk business.” The tensions between the two parties were already tense, and the Commander did little to calm the fire. Reluctantly, Alfor nodded to one of the servants to bring up a table. It was smaller than the ones in the meeting room, but was still grand compared to any other proportion.

 

“Emperor Zarkon stated that he would give back the Black Lion, and a constant supply of Power Crystal.”

 

“The Black Lion is here?” Allura asked, clearly suspicious of Zarkon’s motives.

 

“No… There wasn’t enough fuel or space for the spacecraft to carry the Black Lion. However, we’ve brought ten Power Crystals.” Commander Sendak signaled the man with the white hair to place the Crystals on the table.

 

“This is only a taste of the fortunes we will bring you, _King_ Alfor.” The Galran bowed, almost like he was mocking him.

 

“And what would be asked for in return?” Alfor asked, almost like he was thinking about accepting the offer. After Voltron had disbanded, the Balmerans had discontinued being allies with them, limiting their Power Crystal supply.

 

“A promise of no violence between the Alteans and the Galrans, and constant supplies to feed the Galran Empire.”

 

“How can we trust you?” Allura asked, causing Alfor to look back disapprovingly at her.

 

“Allura-“

 

“If that’s not enough for you, Emperor Zarkon offers two of his best soldiers to be bodyguards to the heirs of the Altean Empire.”  

 

“I’m guessing those are the best your Empire has to offer?” Alfor directed towards the two soldiers. It seemed that even Allura’s father knew that they were up to no good.

 

“Yes, Emperor Zarkon understands that there is a massive distrust between the Alteans and Galrans, and wants to rebuild bridges between our empires. He wants to renew the friendship between Altean and Galrans. He wants to renew the friendship that he had between him and… and you, King Alfor. As a token of his apologies, he wants to give up his two strongest soldiers.”

 

“He said that?” Alfor questioned, he had always hoped that Zarkon would be able to see the error of his ways and try to rebuild their strong bond. Honestly he thought he wouldn’t see the day.

 

“How do we know that they won’t attack the citizens or hurt Prince Lance and Princess Allura?” Alfor asked, this deal sounded too well to be true; putting his children in danger isn’t a cost he was willing to take.

 

“Ah, do not worry King Alfor. Do you see those braces on their arms?” Sendak directed the attention to dark armguards on their forearms. It seemed like there was some sort of violet energy flowing throughout the armguards.

 

“These will send a strong electric current, which can be triggered by these controls.” Sendak handed them to Allura and Lance, who both looked uneasy at the thought of harming someone that resembled their citizens.

 

“Would you like to test it out?” Commander Sendak smirked.

 

“No, no thank you.” Lance finally spoke, a look of disgust was clearly written on his face.

“So, is it a deal?” The Galran commander lifted his hand for the King to take.

 

“I will need to talk to Zarkon personally before I make any decisions, Commander Sendak.” Alfor said, sternly.

 

“Of course, I will leave immediately to give the message to Zarkon to respond to you… In the meantime… I hope you enjoy your gifts.” Commander Sendak said, before moving to leave, and this time without an entourage behind him.

 

“We were hoping that you would stay for dinner, Commander.” Allura stated.

 

“I’m sorry Princess, but I have to be on my way for Zarkon to have a chance to respond. Hopefully, you and I could have that dinner when I come back.” Utter disgust fell over every Altean in the room, but nobody spoke out at the outrageous comment in fear of breaking the peace treaty.  

The Altean footman ushered him out, and followed behind him towards the spacecraft hangar. As the doors closed silence filled the room.

 

“Well, that was something.” Lance said breaking the silence.

 

“Indeed…” Alfor agreed.

 

“Father, what do you plan to do with… them?” Allura motioned towards the two supposed, “best soldiers Zarkon has”.

 

“They will have to stay here for the meantime. Understand children, this peace treaty is very important for the further progress of Altea as a planet.” Alfor turned towards his children, a few noises happening in the background from the servants moving things around.

 

“I trust that the two of you will avoid disclosing any secrets while they escort you around the castle, keep your guard up. It’s just for a few weeks… I ask you to be patient with me while I sort this out, this peace treaty was far from traditional, and will need further accommodation if anything is to come up from it.”

 

“Why do we even need this peace treaty in the first place?” Lance asked all of a sudden.

 

“It’s Altean tradition, Lance, and as Crown Prince you need to act as a leader and a representative of what this peace treaty could offer.” Alfor snapped, before turning to leave, causing Lance’s mouth to open agape.

 

“Allura, please remind me some other time about your idea. I apologize that we haven’t had the time.” The Altean king said before turning to leave, a swarm of advisors following in his wake.

 

“Which one do you want?” Lance nudged towards the two men that have been stuck with a stiff pose of hands behind their back and head up.

 

“They aren’t pets, Lance! They’re people... I don’t really care, which one I get.” Allura stated, before looking at them thoughtfully. There was something about the white-haired one that made her feel… comfortable. He reminded Allura of the valley filled with Juniberries that Lance, her father, her mother, and her used to go… Before, all this happened.

 

“You. I’ll take you, follow me.” Allura pointed at the taller man with her nose held high, before walking out and not looking back at Lance, as he looks at his “bodyguard” with a resulting sigh.

 

“Man… I wanted him. He looked so cool.” Allura heard Lance exclaimed. As she left the room, the doors closing behind her, she softly smiled at her brother and look towards the window where the sun had left the view of any of those watching. Sometimes when the castle was cold, her brother was like a warm sunrise, except obviously the sun rises earlier than he does.

 

As she walked she heard the closely followed footsteps of her “bodyguard”, she shouldn’t get too close to these people. They work for Zarkon, and anyone from the Galra Empire is not to be trusted. However, a small part of her hoped that her initial impression of the man following her was correct, and that he wasn’t what the books wrote them out to be.

 

Nevertheless, Allura was determined to keep her guard up at all times, as that is what a leader of Altea must do, her father’s presence always reminded her to be like that many times before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, here is August's chapter as promise!
> 
> This probably took me the longest to write just because of how important it is to the story. 
> 
> However, I've been thinking about the summary and honestly I'm not satisfied with it. It feels awkward in a way, I don't know if you feel the same, but if any of you had some advice to change it in some way please don't be afraid to tell me. 
> 
> P.S. Thank you to Sasabu, Lonewhitewolf488, AussieDollVa, and WouldIEverTellYouMyName for giving kudos. I'd like to thank Izaria, PigChicken, and PlantMass for bookmarking. Finally, I would also like to thank RuneReader, and I hope this chapter was worth the wait!


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